Judge Clears Dead Man Of Manslaughter

Defendant Jumped To Death After Conviction

July 15, 1995|By MIKE FOLKS Staff Writer

Henry Schantz finally got what he wanted on Friday, but he had to die to get it.

Schantz committed suicide in May after he was convicted of two counts of vehicular homicide. On Friday, a Palm Beach County judge dismissed those convictions because of the death, clearing Schantz's record.

"He had been adjudicated guilty, but hadn't been sentenced," Assistant Palm Beach County State Attorney Ellen Roberts said after Friday's brief hearing. "[The convictions) forever would appear on the computer" if they had not been dismissed, she said.

Schantz, 69, of Sebring, jumped from a five-story parking garage adjacent to the Palm Beach County Courthouse minutes after being convicted on May 25. His wife and attorney watched helplessly.

He died two days later.

On Friday, the day Schantz was scheduled to be sentenced, prosecutors asked a judge to dismiss his convictions. The judge honored that request after learning Schantz had committed suicide.

Pam Browne, a prosecutor on the case, said Schantz, in effect, got what he wanted.

More important, she said, he jumped from the courthouse garage because he was tormented knowing that anyone could think he would cause an accident and leave someone to die.

Schantz had been convicted of causing a March 30, 1994, accident on U.S. 27 near South Bay that killed a South Carolina couple. Their four-year-old son survived the crash.

Prosecutors maintained during the trial that Schantz tried to pass a slow-moving, southbound semitrailer truck, forcing the South Carolina couple's northbound car off the road to avoid a head-on collision. The car hydroplaned and slammed broadside into a southbound recreational vehicle, killing the couple instantly.

A truck driver jotted down a tag number and police arrested Schantz a short time later at his home.

During the trial, Schantz's defense attorneys maintained that another driver in a green car caused the fatal crash.